What is a Virtual Assistant?
A Virtual Assistant (or VA) is a self-employed skilled professional who works from their own office or home, providing a variety of remote business support services. Utilising today’s technology, a Virtual Assistant works independently and flexibly, away from the traditional office environment.
Education levels of Virtual Assistants (VAs) vary but as a general rule they are normally well educated and have a multitude of hard skills and experience in office management and computer systems and software.
My assistance is ideal for small to medium businesses, business start ups, sole traders, freelancers, charities, community groups and larger companies who have the opportunity to outsource work. I am also available to help with personal matters and projects.
I am not an employee of your company. In fact I am my own small business owner myself. I take pride in working with your company providing an excellent, cost effective resource.
Communication between us is usually by phone, e-mail, instant messaging, fax or post. However, if you are a local business then I can meet with you personally.
I can provide you with business support on a continual or ad-hoc basis. I have over 17 years office experience in I.T. and secretarial support.
A Virtual Assistant May Be Your Company’s Most Valuable Resource in Productivity
A virtual assistant is an entrepreneur who provides support in an administrative capacity to help big or small businesses and busy executives with their workload. A virtual assistant can handle all the tasks that are generally handled by a company employee. So, why work with a virtual assistant instead of having an assistant right outside your door?
You are busy
You may be running a small business, perhaps a start-up, and are working from your home. You do not need to provide office space or equipment nor have someone in your home distracting you from your own tasks. You can simply delegate tasks in your own time.
Cost Control
You pay ONLY for the time a Virtual Assistant works for YOU. A Virtual Assistant is also a small business owner who is 100% responsible in assuming all tax obligations for their income. You do not have to pay for vacation, sick days, holidays and provide other benefits. In addition, when you hire a VA, they provide their own computer, software and office equipment, so you do not need to be burdened with these expenses. The only thing you pay is for their hourly charge or retainer.
Pay per Project or Monthly Retainer
Virtual Assistants can provide you with services on an as-needed basis. If you only require only a couple of hours of service for a project, you will pay their standard hourly rate. Many VA’s will offer a discounted rate for a monthly retainer and often times, should there be any unused hours, they will be rolled into the next month.
Experience
Most Virtual Assistants have worked in an Administrative capacity for at least 5 years and it is not unusual to find others that have 20 years or more of experience in dealing with busy executives in a professional setting. You can feel assured as a business owner, that when you hire an experienced VA, your work will be handled with the utmost of care and professionalism.
No “Down” Time
Productivity is vital in a business setting but many employees actually admit to handling personal matters while on the company clock. With a Virtual Assistant you only pay for the time they are actually working on your job. A good VA has time tracking software which keep track of the time spent on your project.
Business Owner Relationship
Perhaps the most important consideration when comparing a Virtual Assistant to an employee is that unlike an employee, a VA is also a business owner. VA’s understand what it takes to run a successful business.
A final advantage in working with a Virtual Assistant is that you are not limited by geography. Thanks to current technology, your VA can work with you from another state or even from half way around the world. Regardless of the time difference, you can E-mail your VA and they will respond to your needs. In fact, as you sleep through the night, your VA may be busy working on your project, so upon awakening, you can find your completed project in your in-box, ready for presentation. How’s THAT for service?
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Jaimie Skultety is a Virtual Assistant based in SE Florida. Her web site may be found at http://www.avirtualassistant.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jaimie_Skultety |
MailChimp: Free Email Marketing Service
Over the years I’ve used several email marketing services for newsletter campaigns. Some have been free, others self-hosted online and the last one was a paid service. I’ve had various levels of success with all of the methods, probably the least problematic was the paid service (Aweber). But the economy is nobody’s friend these days so saving a few pence here and there is in everyone’s interest.
For a long-term project I’ve been running I switched from Aweber to MailChimp. MailChimp is free for up to a list of 2,000 email subscribers with a maximum of 12,000 emails being sent each month. If you exceed these requirements then you begin to pay for the service. Fortunately, this was actually more than I needed.
I’ve been running with the free account for 3 months now and I have to say Mailchimp is a great service. It’s by far the best email subscriber I’ve come across to date. There are free widgets to integrate your newsletter into your blog and it will even post your newsletter automatically to your Twitter and Facebook accounts.
You can easily design your newsletters to run with your brand image. Change the colours, add your own header etc. It’s really easy to do and you can save your template for future use. Of course, if you don’t have time to do that or want some help then I can help you customise your emails and newsletters.
Overall, if you have a small mailing list and want to use a free service with premium features I’d recommend MailChimp. In fact, I’m going to be using it for my own Rosmerta newsletters which will be coming to a mail box near you soon!
